"Birth of a Nation" and "History written with lightning"

[Mark A. Mandel]

Bonnie Taylor-Blake writes:
>>>>
Oops.  About "teaching history by light[n]ing" and *The Birth of a Nation*,
it's a good thing that film historian Arthur Lennig's already tracked it.

All the way back to the end of February, 1915, a mere ten days after the
film had been screened at the White House.

        [...]

Wilson was impressed with the work, which echoed his own views as offered in
his *History of the American People* (1902) . . . and he reputedly said that
it was like 'writing history with lightning ... My only regret is that it is
all too true.'
<<<<

This may already have been noted here, but how likely is it that "lightning"
referred to the new medium of movies (flashes of light), rather than to
either the force and dynamicism of that particular movie, as I'd been
assuming in following this discussion?

-MAM